SPICED CHOCOLATE AND PRUNE FUDGE CAK E Gewürzter Schokoladen Kuchen

This moist, dense cake is made with buckwheat flour, making it gluten free. It is so rich and indulgent it can also double as a dessert.

MAKES 1 (SERVES 8)

● 100g prunes, pitted

● 100ml just boiled water

● 200g unsalted butter, at room temp, plus extra for greasing

● 225g dark brown sugar

● 2 eggs

● 100g dark chocolate (70 per cent cocoa solids), melted

● 1 tsp vanilla extract

● 100g buckwheat flour

● 50g unsweetened cocoa powder

● 1½ tsp ground cinnamon

● ½ tsp ground cardamom

● 1 tsp baking powder (ensure gluten-free, if necessary) ● 50g cornflour

● 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

FOR THE FROSTING

● 225g dark chocolate

(50 per cent cocoa solids), broken into pieces

● 300ml double cream

TO DECORATE

● Sprig of holly, orange slices or bay leaves

1. Put the prunes into a small bowl and pour the just-boiled water over them. Leave to soak and soften for 30 minutes.

2. Heat the oven to 180°C/ 160°C fan/350°f/gas 4. Grease and line a 23cm springform cake tin. Put the butter, sugar and soaked prunes (including liquid) into a food processor and blitz until smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and blitz until evenly combined – it may look split at this stage, but this is normal. Pour the melted chocolate into the mixture and blitz once more until mixed through. Now add the remaining ingredients and blitz for about 30 seconds until the batter is smooth. Tip the batter into the prepared tin and smooth the top with a spatula.

3. Bake in the centre of the oven for 30 minutes, or until set on top and just starting to brown. A metal skewer inserted into the centre of the cake won’t, and should not, come out clean – the middle of this cake is fudgy, hence its name, and because of this it will sink in the centre as it cools. Cool in the tin, turn out onto a wire rack, then turn the correct way up onto a serving plate.

4. To make the frosting, put the chocolate into a large mixing bowl. Heat the cream in a saucepan over a medium-high heat, stirring from time to time, until it just comes to the boil. Take off the heat and pour immediately onto the chocolate. Using a wooden spoon, beat the chocolate

and cream together until smooth and glossy; the heat from the cream will melt the chocolate.

5. Spoon the frosting generously into the dip in the centre of the cake. Decorate with a sprig of holly, some dried orange slices, bay leaves – whatever takes your fancy really. Alternatively, if you choose not to frost this, it is good eaten warm (but not hot straight out of the oven) for dessert with a dollop of crème fraîche on the side. Unfrosted, it will keep well in an airtight tin for 3 days.